Breaking new territory - - had my first session with a personal trainer

A few things combined for this new step in my fitness training. 


The first is that this month I have been systematically eating all the bad (yet delicious!) foods, like the Nerd's bourbon balls and sugar cookies, and all the baking that people have been bringing into the office.  When you combine the holiday baking with the sheer volume of social engagements - - festive lunches, dinners with friends, coffee dates, and potlucks, it's a wonder that I can still fit into any of my clothes. 


Now that I have released the Kraken, as it were, it will take about a week of eating properly without snacking to get my cravings back under control.  One day at a time will be the key. 


The second and bigger step is that I have hired a personal trainer.  I received a small inheritance from my grandmother, and rather than blowing it all on hookers and cocaine I thought I would actually turn it into a long term positive by taking the next step in my fitness and hiring a trainer. 


I have been working out on my own for almost 3 years now and I have lost 144 pounds (well, at least I had before blowing my brains out on cookies and lunches this month!).  But it is too easy for me to get settled into comfortable routines, and even tools like the heart rate monitor that are intended to help me push myself only can go so far.  Plus, as a self-taught exerciser, I have all the bad technique of the amateur, and no one to correct me.


As it happens, one of the marketers here at the Company is married to a personal trainer.  I looked him up and he seemed reasonable, so I booked him to come in and meet me last week at my office.  He was just as reasonable in person, so I booked a session. 


I was terrified about the whole thing, because what if he asked me to do things I couldn't physically do?  What if he pushed me so hard I threw up?  What if we just didn't work together well?  And, most concerning for me and my dark subconscious, what if he laughed at me?


Of course those of you who have trainers will know that all of my concerns were groundless - - the trainer (aka "Mr. Fitness") listened when I was having problems with a particular exercise and changed up the routine, he worked within my limits and pushed me, but not to the point of injury or projectile vomiting, and he did not laugh even a little bit.  The Nerd laughed at my struggles to do sit-ups whilst punching Mr. Fitness' hands, but I only found out about that this morning, and anyways, the Nerd is entitled to tease me. 


Mr. Fitness and I had discussed my cardio workouts last week and he recommended that I try high intensity interval training, which I began incorporating into my routine this week.  My pattern right now is a 5 minute gentle warm up followed by 10 sets of 30 seconds at high intensity (going around 220-230 strides/minute "as if being chased by a lion") followed by 60 seconds of low intensity.  These workouts are shorter - around 20-25 minutes rather than 30-45 - so  I don't get the same calorie burn as my previous elliptical work, but they certainly get my heart rate up and push my body. 


I did a HIIT session on the elliptical right before Mr. Fitness arrived, so I was warmed up and ready to go when he got there.  While that worked pretty well as far as a warm up, my legs did get wobbly later in my session so I might not go full HIIT on my personal trainer days in the future, just to make sure I have legs left for the actual training bit. 


We did pushing work last night, with bench presses, nose crushers, and shoulder raises alternated with swinging a kettle bell between my legs and up to chest height along with some squats.  We finished with some core work on the Swiss ball, sit-ups where I hit Mr. Trainer's hands as I came up, and then some jab/cross/duck routines (my favourite part of the whole night) with the boxing gloves and target pads. 


I was well and truly thrashed after my workout and I learned a lot about technique (especially on the squats and shoulder raises which I have apparently been doing completely wrong for years), and overall I had a good time so I consider it money well spent.  With the holidays we won't be able to meet again until the 30th, but that may be the interval I need to recover from last night's ass kicking!

Working out with a cold is just as much fun as you would expect...

Photo courtesy Tallasiandude, licensed CC-BY-NC-SA

... that is, not at all fun.

In the spirit of starting fresh (yes, I know, starting fresh again - luckily there's no limit to picking yourself up and dusting yourself off), I dragged myself out of my sickbed this morning and did a workout.

Not the full amazon-woman type workout that is my custom on normal days, but a pitiful workout suitable for the phlegmatic.  Tee hee - "phlegmatic".  See what I did there?

I still have coughing fits and cannot breathe through my nose, and I was concerned that a workout, even a short workout, would be too stressful in my weakened condition.  So in a rare burst of sensible thinking, I did an easy workout of 30 minutes' walking on the treadmill at 3 mph, with a brief 10 minute elliptical session at the end with the usual tension and stride rate.  My big concern was overdoing it so that I would end up more compromised than before, and unable to stop coughing. 

I found the elliptical more physically challenging than the treadmill, and even this brief 40 minute workout was enough to exhaust me.  But I experienced only mild coughing, easily controlled - - no massive coughing fits.  I felt good having done a workout after a few days off, and I know that I should feel 100% better tomorrow.  That's the way these colds are.

I also measured myself this morning, to set the new baseline.  I had previously been taking my measurements each month, but once the weight started going back on (due to my unbridled snacking and binge eating), my dimensions ballooned up and I felt terrible looking at the tape measure each month.  Enough of that crap - - today sets the new high water mark, and each month I will be able to track progress again as I maintain my program. 

Why does this matter?  I realized over the past few days how much I need the positive reinforcement of my tracking graphs and logging.  Keeping a record of things and seeing linear progress helps me stay motivated and on track.  Just hopping on the scale and seeing a number without logging it is somehow less empowering for me, even if that number is lower than the number before.  It turns out I need to track my progress to help me keep seeing progress - - no tracking, and I find it simply too easy to cheat on the food, and ease up on the workouts.  When I track and I feel the desire to cheat, I can look back at my progress graphs and see all the good work I have done memorialized there, and it helps me stay on plan.

Enough is enough.  I have started fresh as if this is the weight I have had to lose all along.  No more coasting on my past successes.  I know my plan works when I stick to it, so I am just going to hold myself accountable and track as much as I did before so that I get those positive bumps when I see progress.  Give me 6 months, and let's see where things shake out. 

But yeah, colds suck.  I hate that I have 16 sinuses in my head, every one of which is full of phlegm.  And my lungs are full of junk as well - - I feel like I am breathing through a sponge.  Ick.  Tomorrow will be better, though. 

Tough Workout This Morning

Today was the kind of workout that makes you really happy when you're finished, but the entire time you are doing it your brain is trying to come up with excuses to stop.

It did not help that we were under a time crunch, so I could not dawdle - - we were expecting the Matriarch's call to go shopping around 9:30 am, so I needed to push my workout from one element directly to the other with as little time lost as possible (and as little rest as possible) in between so as to be ready when the call came. 

This meant that I went directly from 45 minutes on the elliptical to 30 minutes on the treadmill for W1D3 of my C25K program, then right back to the elliptical machine for a 20 minute cool down. 

Maybe it was feeling the time crunch an not taking more than a minute's rest in between the different elements, but this morning's workout was just plain grueling.  I didn't want to start the C25K program at all, and then all the way through I had to force myself to keep going through the running intervals.  Today was another 8 minutes of running broken into 1 minute intervals with 1.5 minutes of walking in between and I knew that I could do it, but man, it was tough this morning.  I basically psyched myself up 8 times before each interval, telling myself that I could do it.  I was wobblier than usual with my hands-free running, and had to really focus to bring my running back under control for the last interval.  When I was finished my whole workout, I was just exhausted, completely blown, and dripping with sweat.  Trust me, I looked super glamorous. 

But boy oh boy did it feel good to be done.  And just in time for the Matriarch's call ... cancelling shopping due to dangerous driving conditions.  D'oh!

Tomorrow will be a workout day because I took last Wednesday off (I had to present at a meeting and didn't have enough time to work out).  It will be a weight day, so back to the upper body work.  And then Monday it is back to C25K, week 2.

Still, I feel fantastic now that the workout is done, and the results since I have gotten back on track have been fabulous.  No snacking + tough workouts = weight loss.  I am down another 0.3 pounds from yesterday's low, for a new low of 187.8 pounds.  I sincerely hope that I am done with the 190's forever, because those 10 pounds basically took me 4 months to lose.  

Back to it tomorrow!

A South Carolina State of Mind - - Stories from Vacation

This week has been a complete break from routine as the Nerd and I have spent the past week in South Carolina, enjoying a family reunion of the Pitt descendants.  Well, various Pitt descendants, anyways.  The nice ones.

© OpenStreetMap contributors, Licensed CC-BY-SA

The family rented two nearly adjacent houses on Fisher Knob at Lake Jocassee, South Carolina (indicated by the red "X" in the map, above).

Lake Jocassee has an interesting heritage, as it used to be a valley with a number of houses in it until the mid-1970s, when the local power concern built a series of dams and flooded the valley.  The new lake runs 250 - 600 feet deep in some places, and fishing maps show the old roads and old rivers that used to run through the valleys between the local hills, along with the old houses, lodges and campgrounds that still lie at the bottom of the lake.

The lake is a popular place for fishing, boating, kayaking, swimming, and hiking.  The local terrain is quite hilly, being situated in the Appalachian mountains, and local roads are very steep with many switchbacks.  Even though it has rained literally every day that we have been here, the rain has not interfered with our various recreational pursuits.  Plus the rain has kept the temperatures in the mid-70s, which is perfect for those of us who hate heat. 

I have been eating my face off this week with all the delicious meals served up every evening.  Each family group has taken turns cooking, and so far we have enjoyed Indian curry (courtesy of the Nerd), meatballs, pasta and seven layer Magic bars (a southern dessert), enchiladas, chicken Marsala and Jello pudding shooters and baklava, barbecue chicken, roasted corn and tomatoes, and pound cake with strawberries and whipped cream, salad bar, corn bread, rosemary bread, baked potatoes, spice cake and prune cake, and jerk chicken and jerk pork sliders with twice baked potatoes.   Among many other amazing foods that I am forgetting.   Along with the food has come a super-abundance of drinking, and I have done my share of polishing off a large bottle of Crown Royal rye whisky.

In a (likely vain) attempt to stave off massive weight gain I have made a point of trying to do something active every day that I have been here.  I have gone swimming for the first time in decades, which was a humbling experience.  My technique is something between "random bobbing" and "modified breast stroke", and apparently I am prone to making alarming noises that frighten small children.  No matter - - the water was warm every day but one, and I had a fun time.

Less fun was the occasional walk that the Nerd and I took along Fisher Knob Road.  I mentioned the whole "Appalachian mountains" thing, right?  Well that leads to roads that are entirely too hilly, in a state that enjoys 85% humidity.  Let it not ever be said that I look glamorous after one of our grim death marches - - by the time we got back to the cabin I was uniformly drenched with sweat.  Sexy time indeed!

Most fun of all for me was kayaking.  I have always wanted to kayak, and I got my first chance to do so this week.  I was able to take the kayak out 4 times this week and I really enjoyed every time.   My various trips are indicated by the blue track in the above map.  The first trip I stayed relatively close to the cabin, but the other three times I went exploring and discovered two beautiful waterfalls and a numerous herons.  I also almost had a tree fall on me - - fortunately it was pointing in the other direction when I was paddling by - - but overall I suffered no ill effects from my little adventures.  Apparently kayaking uses all the muscles in the body, especially the core and shoulders, but I mainly feel it in my shoulders alone.  I'm not sure I even have a core, frankly.

The water levels on the lake are apparently 25 feet higher than usual, and the little island in the above photo is usually not an island at all.  The high water levels also explain the unusually high amount of toppled trees that have fallen into the lake  (including the one that almost crushed yours truly) - - the action of waves on the local red clay soil undercuts the land and undermines trees' roots, leading them to fall over into the water - - usually in spectacular fashion.

Certainly I am not getting the cardio workout of my usual elliptical/elliptical + weights workouts, but I am hoping that the combination of hill training (aka grim death marches), swimming (aka bobbing), and kayaking (aka paddling) will have kept my metabolism from completely going dormant.

I have been very lucky so far this week and have not been bitten to death by insects, nor have I gotten terribly sunburned.  As you can see from the photo of my legs, above, I may even be paler than when I left Canada, if that is at all possible.   You will be pleased to know that in a comparison of various arms, the South Carolina natives are the darkest, followed by the Cincinnati resident, followed by yours truly.  Yes, in a shocking twist, the Canadian was the palest person at the reunion. 

Tomorrow we head back to Columbus for the first leg of our trip home, which should be a 9 hour drive.  I am already dreading coming back to the office.  For now, however, there is food to be eaten and drinks to be consumed.  Back to routine in a couple of days.

Back on track - - and feeling fine!

Although it felt like I went a little off the rails in the last couple of weeks, overall I managed to keep things on track.  This week I saw more progress, and even a few nice wins.  To belabour the train metaphor, things just kept chugging along this week. 

This week I lost another 1.9 pounds to bring my weight down to 211.1 pounds, for a total loss of 122.8 pounds.   My BMI is now 31.2, down from 49.3.  Yes, I am still obese, but I am creeping ever closer to "overweight". 

I particularly like that my body fat % is coming down - - when I first got my Withings scale (last July), I had body fat % values of greater than 50% - - just take a minute and think about the implications of that.  Understanding that the body fat % measurements on an electrical impedance scale are directional only, with a value of more than 50% body fat, my body was still largely fat, directional or not. 

Apparently a healthy body fat % for a woman of my delicate years is between 23% and 33%, so I am well on my way to a good place in terms of body fat.  36.9% is much closer to 33% than 50% after all. 

The 1.9 pound loss this week keeps me well on track to hit my goal weight of 165 pounds around the end of January.  So how are things tracking vis a vis the other goals?

More progress this week.  I am within 6.1 pounds of being light heavy, and 8.1 pounds of being overweight.  That will be a significant milestone.  The 46.1 pounds to my ultimate goal still feels like a long way away yet, but it's closer every week.  Tiny steps closer, to be sure, but closer.  I just wish I weren't so impatient, but that's the curse of a Type A personality for you - - a craving for instant gratification.


As for nice wins this week, I have started wearing some of my size 16 clothes (notably a couple of flannel skirts and a pair of blue jeans) and I am getting a ton of compliments on them.  It's amazing what wearing clothes that fit will do in terms of making it obvious that a person has lost a significant amount of weight.  I am still a bit uncomfortable about not wearing my camouflage - - black suits with many layers in a size or two too large - - but having people tell me how good I look is a nice way to gentle me into wearing more size-appropriate clothing. 

It is also making me want to embrace more colour - - I am wearing a red twin set today, and I am mulling over buying a nice spring dress.  It is such a change from a year ago when literally the only things I wore were black suits, or black sweaters with black skirts.  Johnny Cash and Darth Vader were my style icons.  No longer!

Yesterday I was very excited because I was able to button up the jacket of one of my size 18 suits for the first time ever.  It looked good, and I felt good, which is all that matters.  Every week as I lose more weight I am also losing inches, and it is a constant revelation to see how differently my clothes fit over time.  I remember when I was first able to put on my old size 20 suits from the archive, and how excited I was.  And I vividly remember the end of January when I was able to do up the jacket on the size 20 black and white suit for the first time -- what a great feeling!  It was the same feeling as yesterday when I did up my suit jacket - - I felt beautiful and powerful and motivated and strong and all those good adjectives that come with progress. 

Another win this week has been that my excellent blood sugar values have continued.  This is really a month to date win, as I have only had 2 above-normal readings so far this month.  I am well on my way to experiencing my second consecutive month with normal fasting blood sugar values.  And it's all without medication - - I can only thank weight loss and regular exercise and sensible eating for the decline in my sugars.  This is such a major testament to the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. 

It is such a major thing given my family history.  Taking control of my eating habits and working out regularly to lose weight has had so many positive side effects, but this is one of the big ones.  As the Matriarch always says, "you don't ever want to be a diabetic", because the related health issues are significant.  Although I would not entirely agree with the Matriarch that it is easier to avoid being a diabetic than dealing with diabetes once you have it - - I would say my daily routine is plenty difficult, thank you very much - - it's nice to move out of the danger zone.  Prediabetes is really like being a little bit pregnant - - you're in for some major physical changes and nothing will ever really be the same again. 

So it's 68 weeks of workouts in the books, and 51 consecutive weeks without missing a workout - - coming up on a full year.  The last time I missed a workout was on May 25, 2012.  This whole eating well and working out thing is well and truly entrenched as part of my lifestyle now, and I am enjoying the benefits of it. 

I still struggle with food cravings and the occasional binge, but I know that I can work through that, with focus.  Yesterday I managed to pull together another great on-plan day, and my objective for this week will be to try stringing together a full week on track.  I can do it!

I have a plan to fight back against this whole "lower calories burned when you're lighter" thing...

It has been about a month or so since I stepped up my workouts, and now that my routine is feeling comfortable, and given the hit that my workout calories have taken with my new, streamlined weight, it's time to kick things up a notch.  After all, if you don't push yourself, you miss half the fun, right? (and by 'fun', I apparently mean 'sweat', judging by this morning's results).

My most recent workout routine was 3 days x 55 minutes of elliptical at a crossramp of 6 and tension of 5 (or 25%) and a stride rate of 130, plus 8 free weight exercises using 6 pound weights at 4 sets of 12 reps each.  On alternate days the routine is 60 minutes of elliptical at the same settings, without the weights.  I can never decide which is my 'easier' day.  Usually it's whatever day is not the current day.  On Saturdays, my rest day, I have been doing only 30 minutes of elliptical, just to keep things limber.

Over time I have been seeing a constant decrease in the calories burned from my workouts with my declining weight, and that is frustrating to me.  I feel ripped off - - if I am sweating that much (and man, do I ever sweat!), I want to get credit for it.

So I am incorporating a couple of changes to my workouts this week to try and make things a little more challenging, and hopefully kick up the calories a bit.

First, I have purchased a set of wrist/ankle weights.  The set I am getting will be up to 5 pounds per wrist/ankle, with weight able to be added in 1 pound increments.  I intend to start off using the weights on my wrists, and I will likely start light, only 1 pound per arm, just to see how it goes.  By effectively adding weight back, I am increasing the effort required during my workout, and thereby increasing the calories burned.

The second change is to add some faster tempo songs into my workout playlist.  Recently my stride rate has been around 130 strides per minute.  This weekend I added some 140 bpm songs, that will hopefully be sprinkled through the workouts (god forbid they all come one after the other!), and this will kick things up periodically through the elliptical workout.

I do not think I am yet fit enough to do a full 60 minutes at 140 bpm, and to be honest, I just don't have enough songs at that tempo to make up a full playlist.  But I have a few 140 bpm songs, and they should help me to make my elliptical workouts a bit more intense.

I tried the new playlist this morning and noticed that my calories burned had increased, along with my stride count.  I am reluctant to add much more time to my workout, because I do need to work sometime, and it's tough enough to fit an hour to an hour and half of workout into my schedule every workday as it is.

Hopefully the combination of wrist weights and faster pace will allow me to stretch out this routine for another few weeks before it starts getting comfortable again.  I definitely felt challenged this morning, so we'll see how it plays out this week.  Could be a long week...!

Catastrophe! The Fitbit went swimming...unintentionally

I have been pretty good in the year that I have owned my little Fitbit.  I have remembered to wear it almost every day, and up until this morning, it never went swimming in the laundry.

You will note that I said "until this morning".  Well, consider my streak as a responsible Fitbit owner at an end.  This morning I did a quick 30 minutes on the elliptical just to give myself room for guacamole this evening (yum!), and I was wearing my Fitbit on my sports bra, as is my custom.  The Nerd started a load of laundry just as I was finishing up, and I rushed to give him my workout clothes, and tossed him everything so that I could catch the load that was just going into the washer.  Unbeknown to me, the Fitbit was included in that bundle, and into the wash it went.  I realized what I had done very quickly, but not before the cycle had begun and the Fitbit was swimming in a pool of gently agitating water. 

Initially it flashed the time when I pressed its button, suggesting that the little guy may not be entirely dead.  So right now it is safely nestled in a box of basmati rice, hopefully drying out from its trip to the washer. 

I checked the Fitbit community forums, and it looks like Fitbits often take trips through the washer, and many of them survive after drying out in rice for 24 hours or so.  I will just have to give the little guy some time to recover from his traumatic ordeal.  Yes, I anthropomorphize my Fitbit, what of it? 

I am a little resentful of the Fitbit's recovery time, because the Nerd and I plan to walk up to the big Loblaws store on Carlton to get spices, and now this trek will be unrecorded on the Fitbit.  But I will track it with Runkeeper so that I at least have some record of the walk.  Nature abhors an uncredited walk...!

It has been a very tough week...

This week has been an uncharacteristically difficult week for my workouts.  I have had to really push through and force myself to work out every day this week, and now my right knee is quite sore. 

Even worse, last night I forgot my iPad and iPhone at the office, thereby stripping me of all my electronic crutches and distractions for my workout this morning.  I had to go old school, trying to keep my heart rate in my target zones for the bulk of my workout using the Nerd's heart rate monitor (which talks to the elliptical).  The only thing I had to distract me was the stride counter and heart rate readout - - which were just not enough to keep me from clock watching. 

It was purely an act of will that got me through this morning's workout.  With no distraction, and no fun music to listen to, time had no meaning.  It felt like the longest workout ever.  But I suppose that will keep me from forgetting my toys at the office again.  Or, in the alternative, from being so lazy that I would not simply go back to the office to get my toys - - after all, the office is only an 8 minute walk from my apartment.  Lesson learned.

Anyhoo, I am wondering if my general malaise is due to the fact that I may be fighting off a cold or some other infection.  Apparently colds and flus are running rampant through the office, and many people are under the weather.  I got the flu shot last week, but that's not to say that I don't have something that's bringing me down somewhat, physically. 

The good news is that I have been pushing through my workouts, just like my plan demands.  I currently have a 27 week streak of consecutive workouts, and I don't want to have to break that streak because I'm a little lethargic.  This workout habit was tough enough to establish, I don't want to undo all my good work by backsliding now.  Besides, I want to keep losing weight, which requires commitment and consistency. 

This too shall pass.  I just need to make sure I keep sticking to my plan so that I am not too far behind once it passes.

Something is happening to my brain...

I had the strangest thing happen to me today - - I got up this morning and thought to myself: "Even though it's technically my day off, I feel like doing a short workout.  I'll just do 15 minutes on the elliptical before going shopping with my mom". 

What the hell...??

In my entire life I have NEVER thought to myself "I want to work out" when I did not absolutely have to do it.  Working out has always been a means to an end for me, rather than something I do for fun. 

Naps.  Those are fun things.  Snuggles.  Reading a good book.  Working out?  That's for suckers.  I work out in the morning to get it over with because it's not typically something that I enjoy.  Rather, it is a chore that must be endured.

In fact, my habit of working out for 40 minutes on the elliptical 6 days a week is so well known that many of my friends on MyFitnessPal asked if I was feeling OK, because a workout of only 15 minutes is out of character for me - - it was such a short workout that something must be wrong.  I was genuinely touched by my friends' concern, and surprised that they noticed. The thing was, this workout did not need to happen at all - - I had met my objective of 6 x 40 minute workouts this week, and today was my day off from exercising. 

And yet this morning I woke up and even though I did not need to, I decided to do an easy 15 minutes on the elliptical, "just for fun".  Wow.  Something is changing in my brain that affects the way I look at exercise.

Is it the endorphins?  Do I even get them?  I'm not sure.  This morning was a revelation to me.  This was the first time - - ever - - that I exercised for fun, and I enjoyed it.

Maybe I am actually experiencing a lifestyle change, where my habits and patterns of behaviour are starting to be positive things that reinforce other good behaviours.  If so, that's fantastic.  Even if it's not, I am going to see if this sudden urge to do incremental exercise ever repeats itself - perhaps there's a way to replicate this experience. 

Because you know what?  I actually *did* enjoy the workout.  Shhhhh - don't tell anyone!

Twelve Angry Men

Photo courtesy Bill Ledbetter, licensed CC-BY-NC-SA

Today was the second time in two days that I had to be in a courtroom, arguing things. 




Back in the dark times before I started working out (like early January, 2012), I was so out of shape that I had a lot of trouble with asthma and difficulty walking distances or standing for long (or even short) periods of time.  When I had to go to court I was always severely compromised - I would be out of breath if I were called upon to speak, and if I walked to the courthouse, my face would be an alarming hot-pink colour for the first 30 minutes of the hearing.  I've actually had people give me strange looks because they thought I was about to stroke out right in front of them - - not a great way to instill confidence, for sure.

Fortunately, my court robes are voluminous, and black is a flattering colour on almost anyone.  Perhaps less fortunately, they are also a wool-blend, which means that in the summer they are hot like the surface of the sun, and if I sweat (as I always do), I end up smelling like a damp sheep by the end of the day. 

Yesterday I had to gown up and argue a motion in front of a judge and a roomful of lawyers (also gowned) who were waiting their turn.  I was nervous as hell because up to now I have been more of a solicitor than a barrister in that I have done more behind the scenes in the law office than in the courtroom.  Add to that the fact that I am naturally shy, and you can imagine how nervous I was waiting my turn to speak. 

To top it off, the judge took the opportunity to lecture me before agreeing to my request - what a way to start the week!

Today was another day in court, but this time I was in front of a Master rather than a Judge, so I did not need to gown.  However this was my first contested motion, so it was the first time I had to go head to head against another lawyer, and one more senior and experienced than me to boot. 

In each case, I noticed something interesting.  I was nervous, sure.  I had shaky hands, but that is normal for me.  I was hot in my robes yesterday, but so was everyone - there were 30 of us in that room and it is high summer. 

What I did not notice was my wheezing asthma, or my bright pink face, or my uncontrollable nerves.  Sure, my heart rate was elevated a bit when I first got into the courtroom each day, but it came down to a normal resting heart rate very quickly.  And this made a huge difference when I was actually making my arguments before the Judge and Master, because I actually felt - and looked - calm.

All of this new zenlike approach to litigation is directly thanks to all of that work on the elliptical trainer.  I do 35 minutes 6 days a week - even today, when I had to race to make sure I had everything ready for court.  And do you know what?  I felt good.  I am actually looking forward to seeing how my improved fitness and cardio helps me as I do ever increasing amounts of litigation.  I never thought that cardio could have such beneficial side-effects, but there you have it.

Missed my planned walking training last night because I was in the office until 2.30 am working on this motion, and I have a volunteer meeting for the Assaulted Women's Helpline this evening, so my (slightly delayed) walk training will have to be in the romantic evening light.  I will let you know how it goes.